The
Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a
World War II American propeller driven
fighter aircraft. Developed to a
United States Army Air Corps requirement, the P-38 had distinctive
twin booms and a single, central
nacelle containing the cockpit and armament. Named "fork-tailed devil" (
der Gabelschwanz-Teufel) by the
Luftwaffe and by the Japanese, the P-38 was used in a number of roles, including interception,
dive bombing,
level bombing,
ground-attack,
night fighting,
photo reconnaissance, radar and visual pathfinding for bombers, and evacuation missions, and extensively as a long-
range escort fighter when equipped with
drop tanks under its wings.